Perfection – Perfeição, Legião Urbana

Perfection – Perfeição, Legião Urbana

Renato Russo, my teenage local hero made big (for people who need parallels, think a Brazilian Morrissey, although he was very different from that) wrote most of Legião Urbana’s lyrics. But it turns out it was the one I actually fancied as a teenage girl: Dado Villa-Lobos, who helped craft this gem, one of the best songs I ever heard on the subject of politics, despair and hope. Most other songs have Renato’s name first, but not this one. This is considered by some to be Brazil’s real national anthem…

The video for it doesn’t seem to have the sophistication and production values we have become accustomed to (I only saw it for the first time last year, but it’s from 1993 – and I think a lot of people are watching and singing it again). Renato Russo was very much into Lord of the Rings and medieval things, so at first I thought he probably made poor Dado wear that outfit which looked so incongruous at first… Also in there is Marcelo Bonfá wearing a more brazilian, local outfit. Perhaps they personify European and local influences in our land? No idea why Dado is riding a horse without a top on at the end 😀

The song itself invites us to evaluate all that is corrupt, greedy, shallow in our (brazilian) society by telling us to celebrate its various downfalls. This could apply to any society, of course. There are specific references to carnaval, vote buying, and some other Brazilian issues. And so we travel through a revolting and depressing landscape filled with everything that is rotten in society. I feel disgusted, cheated and angry every time I go through this journey. It’s very effective in eliciting those feelings in me.

Until the very last two verses, when suddenly it takes a sharp turn, and it says ‘enough, things can be different!’, and every time I hear it my heart fills up with hope, and I well up. EVERY TIME!!! I try to listen to this song on rare occasions, so that it can keep having this amazing effect on me. The last verses to me are a call to arms, a call to action. Time to do something about all that is wrong, time to change.

Let’s celebrate our flag
Our past
The absurd glories
Everything which is free and ugly
All that is normal
Let’s sing together
The national anthem
The tears are real
Let’s celebrate our longing
And commemorate our loneliness

Let’s celebrate the aberration
Of our complete lack of common sense
Our disregard for education
Let’s celebrate the horror
Of all this
With party, funeral and coffin
Everything is dead and buried now
We also have to celebrate
The stupidity of who sang
this song